Rangel Ravelo es en fuego. The 23-year-old first baseman is eviscerating the Venezuelan Winter League, and on Saturday he continued right along by slugging his league-leading fifth homer and reaching base in all four of his plate appearances.
Ravelo seemed like a candidate to reach Oakland in 2015, but he hurt his wrist during spring training and didn't return to the field until late June. Perhaps he would have gotten some of Max Muncy's reps as the A's backup first baseman if he hadn't gotten hurt, but instead he headed back to Double-A to reprove himself. He quickly passed that test, with a 139 wRC+ in 22 games (98 PAs) for the Midland RockHounds, but he didn't do much in Triple-A the rest of the way -- just an 86 wRC+ in 28 games (112 PAs), without showing anything special in terms of power or plate discipline.